


Delirium

by chronicAngel



Series: Whumptober 2019 [3]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, Death, Delirium, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hallucinations, POV Third Person, Whumptober, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 21:00:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20918537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chronicAngel/pseuds/chronicAngel
Summary: "Everyone you love dies," he hears from somewhere over his shoulder, and he freezes, eyes wide in terror.





	Delirium

It's the sort of thing that happens in movies, not real life.

They're on a walk, laughing together, their breaths puffing into the winter air in front of them and their gloved fingers brushing against each other. She's playfully running away from him, not so much a sprint to get away as brief dashes to stay just out of his reach, and he's happily chasing her in the direction of their apartment. It's weird for him to think that they've been dating for four years now. That they live together. He loves her so fucking much, it's just... surreal.

A gunshot fires off from somewhere, and his eyes go wide as he sees blood spatter onto the snow.

"Josh?" Sam asks softly, and then she crumples to the ground and he's immediately on his knees in front of her.

"No, Sam, no," he says, immediately panicked. He hears more guns firing off but he can't even hear the ringing in his own ears because he's just staring down at her. The snow around her is quickly turning red and he can hear her struggle to take little breaths. "Oh, God, Sam," he sobs, his eyes immediately welling up with tears. "Fuck, somebody help!" He screams, so loudly he can hear it echoing down the block. He moves his hands to dig in his pockets but he'd forgotten his phone at the apartment and hers had died, ironically, at the convenience store. The little paper bag with her box of tampons and chocolates and cran-grape juice lays on the ground a foot away from her now.

"Josh," she sobs, and her voice is so soft, and he scoops her up as much as he can to cradle her to his chest even as it gets blood all over his t-shirt. She coughs into his shoulder a little bit, the sound wet and like it rattles her whole rib cage. "Josh, it hurts," she murmurs, and he just shakes his head, bringing a hand up to cradle the back of her head and stroke his fingers through her hair. He wants to scream for help again but it's almost eleven at night and any help he's going to get will already be on its way. _This isn't fair_, he thinks. _God, it's not fair. It could have been anyone else. Anyone but her._

It's hardly two minutes before a police officer rushes to the two of them. "Sammy," he says, trying to get her attention, because she's only half-conscious and she's been murmuring delirious nothings into his shirt for the last minute. "Sammy, you're gonna get help. It's gonna be okay." She just weakly nods, and the cop calls through his speaker for an ambulance and then explains to Josh that there was an active shooter situation just a little ways away, and really, he's surprised they hadn't seen or heard about it.

"We knew that he'd misfired a shot and it ricocheted somewhere. If we'd known there were civilians in the area at this hour, we would have come to help immediately." _At this hour? It's only 11:00_, he thinks, because sure, it's late, but it's not like it's two in the fucking morning, and his girlfriend needed fucking _tampons_. What were they supposed to do, hold out until morning? Their sheets would beg to differ.

"Everyone you love dies," he hears from somewhere over his shoulder, and he freezes, eyes wide in terror. She was always honest, but never cruel. "How could you do that to us? Loving you is a curse. Being loved by you is a curse. If you'd just left her alone, this never would have happened, Josh."

"She's not dead. She's not gonna die. Help is coming. She's gonna be fine," he murmurs under his breath through gritted teeth, and if the officer hears him he is polite enough not to say anything or even shoot him a funny look. _More likely he just didn't hear me_, he thinks. He peers over his shoulder cautiously to see Beth, snowflakes catching in her hair as though she were really standing hardly five feet away from him. "You're not real," he says after a moment. "You're dead."

She crosses her arms over her chest and narrows her eyes. "Of course I am, Josh. You didn't save me. Didn't save us. You were too stumbling blind drunk to do anything for your own little sisters." He wants to cover his ears, if only that meant it'd stop. Even more, though, he wants to hold Sam and never let her go. Besides, he's learned after years of experience that covering his ears doesn't make the voices stop. It doesn't make any of it stop. "I thought you loved us, but you let us die. And now Sam is going to die, and that's your fault too. If you had just stayed away from her she wouldn't have even been here. Everyone you love gets hurt. It's your fault. Your fault, your fault, your fault."

He squeezes his eyes shut and screams, "Shut up!"

The officer shoots him a look now, but is still courteous enough not to say anything. Sam, though, in his arms, murmurs so weakly, "Hey... It's not real, Josh." He sniffs and takes a deep breath before prying his eyes open again. She looks ghostly pale, bleeding out in the snow. "It's gonna... be okay. I love you." And just like that, as though she has stopped fighting sleep, she blinks a few times until her eyes fall closed and she goes limp in his arms, just as the ambulance pulls up.

He sucks in a breath of the cold air. "No, Sam." The EMTs move to pull her out of his arms, and he can't fight them but he still scrambles after them on all fours for a moment in the snow. "No, Sam!" He pushes himself to his feet as they load her into the back. "Sam, I love you too!" He knows she can't hear him.


End file.
